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Pro-city of South Fulton proponents like South Fulton Concerned
Citizens spokesmen say they plan to outsource or privatize most South
Fulton city services to a private company CH2M Hill instead of having
staff like Fulton County. Initially CH2M Hill was just doing services
in Atlanta for Sandy Springs. Now that they are also handling service
for the new cities of Johns Creek and Milton it seems that
"This is maybe an aspect of privatization that we hadn't anticipated,
and it's rearing its ugly head now."
[AJC Article below]
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Do we really want to trade the successful service delivery mechanism
we have now, to this private firm that it seems is struggling to
serve even the north Fulton cities?
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Why become a city if you don’t have the capacity to provide services
and must outsource them?
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Do you really think “our needs” will be a priority down here in
South Fulton as the newest customers, when there is competition for
scare resources by three cities in North Fulton?
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Have any of the pro-city of South Fulton proponents told
you where City Hall for South Fulton, GA will be located this year if we
vote for the city?
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Has anyone seen a map showing how much smaller the city is after all
the annexations that took place through April 2nd?
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Did you know now because of HB725 all of these annexations through
April 2, 2007 are legal, a done deal and beyond court challenge?
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Has anyone showed you the financial impact of the annexations?
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Have you noticed that now we are relying on a vote in November for
the crucial revenue from Fulton Industrial for a new city, but you
won’t know if we’ll get it when the city vote comes in June? Do you
remember the pro-city folks told you before that we did not need
FIB’s taxes, now it is crucial!
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If
building and running a new city was easy and cheap you wouldn’t
see north Fulton cities being forced to spend millions to have
someone do it for them and now their success is in the hands of
outsiders.
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If
you don’t think the 4th in line in Georgia won’t be
paying a premium to outsource their government – think again.
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The
SF pro-City folks plan to outsource everything but police/fire
and they plan to get police/fire services from Fulton until they
can recruit and build their own departments. Haven’t you seen how
difficult with all the competition it is to recruit police and
firemen in metro Atlanta and then we’re going to start from
scratch.
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Folks talk about how they want to run their own city and then they
plan to have a company based in Englewood Colorado run it for
them.
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Did
it dawn on you that in addition to changing your address from
Atlanta, GA to South Fulton, GA that your services could get worse
and your taxes go up in a new city?
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Please think folks all is not what it seems despite all of the
charming and enticing words from some of our “so-called” leaders.
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We
don’t have to follow North Fulton as they speed off the bridge
that is out ahead!
Sandy Springs must now share city
management firm with Milton,
Johns Creek
By
CYNTHIA DANIELS,
DOUG NURSE
The Atlanta
Journal-Constitution
Published
on:
04/24/07
Nearly 18 months into Sandy Springs' cityhood, some residents aren't
that happy with their cutting-edge experimental government.
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PHIL SKINNER/AJC
STAFF
(ENLARGE) |
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Johns
Creek chief code enforcement officer Reggie Miller talks with
Elements Fitness owner Andrea Borrego about the amount of photos
and signage on her store's windows.
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OUTSOURCED CITIES
•
CH2M Hill-OMI
is a Colorado-based employee-owned engineering and consulting
company with 18,000 employees and offices in 110 countries.
• Through contracts with the cities of Sandy Springs, Johns Creek
and Milton, the company provides the staff for many cities
services, including pothole patching and administrative
operations, such as operating a 24-hour call center.
• The company's contracts do not cover the Police Department, Fire
Department or city courts.
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It's not that the honeymoon is over between the city and the citizens
who voted to create it. That happened last summer about the time of
the first controversial zoning decisions.
The problem now is akin to jealousy: Residents have watched CH2M Hill-OMI,
the private company that provides much of the city's staff, begin to
send code enforcement officers over to work in the new cities of
Milton and Johns Creek — the two newest North Fulton cities that also
hired CH2M Hill for day-to-day services.
"This is maybe an aspect of privatization that we hadn't anticipated,
and it's rearing its ugly head now," said Sandy Springs resident Thaea
Lloyd, who worries that fewer officers will mean less enforcement.
Sandy Springs was the first of its kind in Georgia, an elected
government served by a largely outsourced staff.
After Milton and Johns Creek opened for business Dec. 1, CH2M Hill
sent three Sandy Springs code enforcement officers to the new cities,
leaving only four officers and one director. Sandy Springs is in the
process of searching for an additional officer. Residents complained
that they have seen enforcement of the city's codes dwindle.
Things got so bad that last month that City Councilwoman Ashley
Jenkins complained to the city manager.
"I was driving down Roswell Road, and I felt like we were back under
Fulton County control," Jenkins said. "There was graffiti on
everything, there were signs everywhere with balloons on the signs,
there were dancing bears advertising free rent in front of apartment
complexes, and I went nuts. ... I felt like we were slipping back into
the abyss, and it's real hard to crawl out of."
Jenkins' complaints resulted in a sweep that filled a truck bed with
75 signs collected from along Roswell Road. And now CH2M Hill is
providing regular reports to the Sandy Springs City Council on its
code enforcement work. Jenkins said Monday she is satisfied with the
response and believes the company is "out there and being aggressive"
on code enforcement.
CH2M Hill insists that Sandy Springs is not being shorted on service.
The company has promised to provide a certain level of service to each
city — not a fixed number of workers.
"We have not shortchanged anyone at all," said CH2M Hill Vice
President Rick Hirsekorn. "If anything, we're supplying more service
than what's in the contract."
In each of the three cities, most of the employees — except for police
officers, firefighters, and city and court clerks — are paid by CH2M
Hill and can be moved at the company's discretion.
Some workers may see duty in more than one place, but CH2M Hill has
staff whose primary assignment is Sandy Springs, Hirsekorn said. For
those workers, Sandy Springs is always top priority, he said.
In Johns Creek, Mayor Mike Bodker said residents seem content with the
level of code enforcement there. Johns Creek has two full-time code
enforcement officers, although city officials are expecting CH2M Hill
to provide a third by the end of the year. They borrow from other
cities as needed. He said he's seen no evidence that CH2M Hill is
cutting corners.
In Sandy Springs, Mayor Eva Galambos and City Manager John McDonough
acknowledge the complaints but say the city is going through an
evolution. When it first opened in late 2005, the new city was busy
making up for years of uneven enforcement by Fulton County.
Residents and officials say there was only one code enforcement
officer for all of unincorporated north Fulton county.
In early 2006, the new city's seven code enforcement officers were
busy inspecting apartments for violations like broken window screens,
garbage and mold. The city even made cases against costumed characters
advertising a local restaurant; they're considered portable signs
under Sandy Springs law and are banned.
The volume of cases was so high that Municipal Court heard code
violation cases every week.
But things have changed — violations have decreased and are now only
heard in court twice a month. The departure of three code enforcement
officers was warranted, Galambos said, since the city's properties are
now more in compliance than they had been. That's precisely the kind
of flexibility that the city intended when it hired the private
company.
Sandy Springs is still a work in progress. When it comes to CH2M Hill,
McDonough added, the city is still mastering balancing community
expectations with learning how many people are needed in what
departments "to get the job done."
"We have the right people in place, and we're fully staffed [once we
hire the additional officer]," McDonough said. "And we're confident
that these issues have been resolved."
Residents plan to keep an eye on things — and to complain again if
need be.
"If code enforcement doesn't work, we're going to hell in a handbasket
and our communities will deteriorate," said Alan Berk, who has lived
in Sandy Springs for 25 years and regularly attends Sandy Springs
Municipal Court. "You can't come out like gangbusters and then
retreat."
http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/northfulton/stories/2007/04/23/0424outsource.html
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